NUI Galway President back city council call for reversal of cuts to higher education funding

NUI Galway has welcomed a motion by the city council calling for increased investment in higher education.

A motion was passed at a meeting of the city council calling on the government to implement the funding plan for higher education laid out in the Cassells Report published in 2016.

The council that the next budget must begin to increase the core funding per student in higher education which has been cut in half in the past ten years.

It was noted by the council that “We recognise and assert that our third level graduates are an essential ingredient of economic growth and, unless investment in third level is increased, we will damage the future competitiveness of the Irish economy and of our society as a whole.”

The number of students in higher education nationally has gone up from 25,000 in 1969 to over 181,000 students now.

Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh President of NUI Galway welcomed the council’s recognition of the role they play in Galway.

“We are grateful for this motion and for this recognition from the Council that the University is a major contributor to the city and that investment in third level is critical to our collective future.”

“If society believes education and third level education in particular is a good thing then we need to find a way to pay for it” he added.